Kyrgyz citizens take stand against bride kidnapping, violence against women

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More than 1,000 people, including schoolchildren, June 6 in Bishkek protest bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan after a young woman was murdered in a police station, allegedly by her abductor. Medical student Burulai Turdaaly Kyzy was stabbed to death as she prepared to give evidence against her suspected kidnapper. [ADILET MARSBEKOV/AFPTV/AFP]

By Asker Sultanov

BISHKEK -- Kyrgyz citizens are taking a vocal stance on the importance of protecting women's rights and denouncing the practice of bride kidnapping after the shocking murder of a young woman in Chui Province last month.

The accused, a native of Talas, allegedly wanted to kidnap Turdaaly Kyzy for marriage. When police brought the pair to the police station in Jayyl District, Chui Province, the man stabbed Turdaaly Kyzy and then himself, according to law enforcement and local news.

Schoolchildren participating in a rally in Bishkek June 9 carry photographs of medical student Burulai Turdaaly Kyzy, who was murdered May 27 by her alleged abductor, highlighting the problem of bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan. [Asker Sultanov]

"We need to stop giving away our girls against their will," she said at the demonstration. "There are already good laws, but we need to work with the parents of young people to change their consciousness."

'No!' to violence against women

Politicians, artists, human rights defenders and dozens of Bishkek residents, dressed in white to symbolise freedom, demonstrated June 9 at a second rally under the slogan "We Are for Women's Rights".

"Today we are saying 'No!' to violence," said Assol Moldokmatova, one of the organisers of the campaign.

"I really want for our young women not to experience violence and to live under conditions where they are not kidnapped and forced into ... early marriages," she told Caravanserai. "A woman should be able to make her own choice. This is why we came today and are honouring the memory of Burulai."

Demonstrators called on lawmakers to strengthen punishment for abductors who force women to marry them.

"We need to review the country's law on women," Moldokmatova said, suggesting that authorities revise that existing law and rename it Burulai's Law in honour of the slain woman.

Roza Otunbayeva, a former Kyrgyz president, spoke at the demonstration, urging women to care for their daughters, to respect their personalities and not to demand that they get married at an early age.

"We women in the cities and villages bear the responsibility for our girls being stolen," she said. "Where is our attention focused? Why aren't we protecting our daughters?"

'We must react'

"I want these incomprehensible remnants of the past to disappear from Kyrgyzstan," Satarova told Caravanserai. "I can say without any doubt that Islam is against kidnapping brides. Violence is unacceptable."

"We must respond," said 18-year-old Bishkek resident Diana Jusupbekova. "I decided to do something and joined this campaign... Being passive in such a situation is monstrous."

Bishkek native Ilyas Estebesov, 32, agreed that "taking a civic position is essential".

"I want to see this kind of civil movement take root in our country and to participate in it," he told Caravanserai, expressing hope that "more-specific measures will stem from [this] demonstration."

Kyrgyzstan's National Plan on Gender Equality, approved by the government in December 2015, must be enforced, argued Tolekan Ismailova, a human rights defender from Bishkek.

"The police were complicit in a murder," agreed Ismailova, adding that no acceptable excuse exists for what happened.

"As soon as Burulai entered the district police station, the investigators were supposed to guarantee her safety," she said. "But the police, operating under patriarchal traditions, allowed her to be left alone with the assailant."

Human rights organisations are determing "how much time the victim was with the assailant and for how long the police officer left them alone", Ismailova said.

"We have expressed our indignation on social networks and consulted lawyers," she said.

It is very important to understand "why law enforcement agencies, which received tremendous sums of money to implement reforms in their ranks, do not enforce the law", she said.

The tragedy of Burulai has been turned into a show! This is to criticise not the article, but the organizers! Making a show out of a someone's tragedy is uyat [a shame], ayim [Mrs] minister Gulmira Karimovna!